XXV.

THE

THIRD ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE,

Delivered 2 FEBRUARY, 1786,

BY

THE PRESIDENT.

IN

N the former difcourfes which I had the honour of addreffing to you, Gentlemen, on the inftitution and objects of our Society, I confined myself purposely to general topicks; giving in the firft, a diftant profpect of the vast career on which we were entering; and, in the fecond, exhibiting a more diffufe, but ftill fuperficial, fketch of the various difcoveries in Hiftory, Science, and Art, which we might juftly expect from our inquiries into the Literature of Afia. I now propofe to fill up that outline fo comprehenfively as to omit nothing effential, yet fo concifely as to avoid being tedious; and, if the state of my health fhall fuffer me to continue long enough in this climate, it is my defign, with your permiffion, to prepare for our annual meetings, a feries of fhort differtations, unconnected in their titles and fubjects, but all tending to a common point of no fimall importance in the purfuit of interefting truths.

Of all the works which have been published in our own age, or, perhaps, inany other, on the Hiftory of the

3

Ancient

Ancient World, and the population of this habitable globe, that of Mr. Jacob Bryant, whom I name with reverence and affection, has the best claim to the praise of deep erudition ingeniously applied; and new theories, happily illuftrated by an affemblage of numberless converging rays from a moft extenfive circumference: it falls, nevertheless, as every human work must fall, fhort of perfection; and the leaft fatisfactory part of it seems to be that which relates to the derivation of words from Afiatick languages. Etymology has, no doubt, fome ufe in hiftorical refearches; but it is a medium of proof fo very fallacious, that, where it elucidates one fact, it obfcures a thoufand; and more frequently borders on the ridiculous, than leads to any folid conclufion. It rarely carries with it any internal power of conviction, from a refemblance of founds or fimilarity of letters; yet often, where it is wholly unaffifted by thofe advantages, it may be indifputably proved by extrinfick evidence. We know à pofteriori, that both fitz and hijo, by the nature of two feveral dialects, are derived from filius; that uncle comes from avus, and ftranger from extra; that jour is deducible, through the Italian, from dies: and roffignol from lufcinia, or the finger in groves; that fciuro, écureuil, and fquirrel,are compounded of two Greek words defcriptive of the animal; which etymologies, though they could not have been demonstrated à priori, might ferve to confirm, if any fuch confirmation were neceffary, the proofs of a connection between the members of one great empire; but, when we derive our hanger, or fhort pendant fword, from the Perfian, becaufe ignorant travellers thus mif-fpell the word khanjar, which, in truth, means a different weapon, or fandalwood from the Greek, becaufe we fuppofe that fandals were fometimes made of it, we gain no ground in proving the affinity of nations, and only weaken arguments which might otherwife be firmly fupported. That Cús, then, or, as it certainly is written in one ancient dialect, Cút, and in others, probably, Cas, enters into the com[ofition

pofition of many proper names, we may very reasonably believe; and that Algeziras takes its name from the Arabick word for an island, cannot be doubted; but, when we are told from Europe, that places and provinces in India were clearly denominated from those words, we cannot but obferve, in the firft inftance, that the town in which we now are affembled is properly written and pronounced Calicátà; that both Cátá and Cút unquestionably mean places of frength, or, in general, any inclofures; and that Gujerat is at least as remote from Jezirah in found as it is in fituation.

Another exception (and a third could hardly be difcovered by any candid criticifm) to the Analysis of Ancient Mythology, is, that the method of reafoning, and arrangement of topicks, adopted in that learned work, are not quite agreeable to the title, but almost wholly fynthetical; and, though fynthefis may be the better mode in pure fcience, where the principles are undeniable, yet it feems lefs calculated to give complete fatisfaction in hiftorical difquifitions, where every poftalatum will, perhaps, be refufed, and every definition controverted. This may feem a flight objection; but the fubject is in itself so interefting, and the full conviction of all reafonable men fo defirable, that it may not be loft labour to difcufs the fame or a fimilar theory in a method purely analytical, and, after beginning with facts of general notoriety, or undifputed evidence, to investigate fuch truths as are at firft unknown, or very imperfectly dif cerned.

The five principal nations who have in different ages divided among themselves, as a kind of inheritance, the vaft continent of Afia, with the many iflands depending on it, are the Indians, the Chinese, the Tartars, the Arabs, and the Perfians: who they feverally were, whence and

when

when they came, where they now are fettled, and what advantage a more perfect knowledge of them all may bring to our European world, will be shown, I trust, in five diftinct effays; the laft of which will demonftrate the connexion or diversity between them, and folve the great problem, whether they had any common origin, and whether that origin was the fame which we generally afcribe to them.

I begin with India: not becaufe I find reafon to believe it the true center of population, or of knowledge, but because it is the country which we now inhabit, and from which we may best survey the regions around us; as, in popular language, we fpeak of the rifing fun, and of his progrefs through the Zodiack, although it had long ago been imagined, and is now demonftrated, that he is himself the center of our planetary fyftem. Let me here premife, that, in all thefe inquiries concerning the Hiftory of India, I fhall confine my researches downwards to the Mohammedan conquefts at the beginning of the eleventh century, but extend them upwards as high as poffible, to the earliest authentic records of the human Species.

India then, on its moft enlarged scale, in which the ancients appear to have understood it, comprises an area of near forty degrees on each fide, including a space almoft as large as all Europe; being divided on the weft from Perfia by the Arachofian mountains, limited on the ealt by the Chinese part of the farther Peninsula, confined on the north by the wilds of Tartary, and extending to the fouth as far as the ifles of Java. This trapezium, therefore, comprehends the ftupendous hills of Potyid or Tibet, the beautiful valley of Cashmir, and all the domains of the old Indofcythians, the countries of Népal and Butánt, Cámrùp or Afàm, together with Siam, Ave,

Racan,

Racan, and the bordering kingdoms, as far as the Chína of the Hindus, or Sin of the Arabian Geographers; not to mention the whole Weitern Peninfula, with the celebrated island of Sinhala, or Lion-like Men, at its fouthern extremity. By India, in fhort, I mean that whole extent of country in which the primitive religion and languages of the Hindus prevail at this day with more or lefs of their ancient purity, and in which the Nágari letters are still used with more or lefs deviation from their original form.

The Hindus them felves believe their own country, to which they give the vain epithets of Medhyama, or Central, and Punyabhúmi, or the Land of Virtues, to have been the portion of Bharat, one of nine brothers, whofe father had the dominion of the whole earth; and they reprefent the mountains of Himálaya as lying to the north; and to the weft, thofe of Vindhya, called alfo Vindian by the Greeks; beyond which the Sindhu runs in feveral branches to the fea, and meets it nearly oppofite to the point of Dwáracd, the celebrated feat of their Shepherd God. In the fouth-eaft In the fouth-east they place the great river Saravatya; by which they probably mean that of Ava, called alfo Airávati in part of its courfe, and giving perhaps its ancient name to the gulf of Sabara. This domain of Bharat they confider as the middle of the Jambudwipa, which the Tibetians alfo call the Land of Zambu; and the appellation is extremely remarkable; for Jambu is the Sanfcrit name of a delicate fruit, called Fáman by the Mufelmans, and by us rofe-apple; but the largest and richest fort is named Amrita, or immortal; and the Mythologifts of Tibet apply the fame word to a celestial tree bearing ambrofial fruit, and adjoining to four vast rocks, from which as many facred rivers derive their feveral ftreams.

The inhabitants of this extenfive tract are defcribed by Mr. Lord with great exa&tnefs, and with a pic

turefque